Update on East Broad St. redevelopment

Jake Crocker, partner with Prodigy Partnership and the Canvas Restaurant checking in. Yes progress is excruciatingly slow but trust us it is being made. 306 and 308 E. Broad had been gutted and the build out should resume any day now. We have scaled this project up from the original concept and of course designs take time to get approved when dealing with historic buildings. We now understand why Toad’s, The National and pretty much every other restaurant in town does not open when expected, it an effort just to get through the bureaucracy.

This will be an iconic facility for that area and do for that stretch of Broad what the Tobacco Company did for Shockoe Slip. Our website is not up yet either as we have been focused on the restaurant. We will update you all when we get that up and running. We’re shooting for fall but this thing is going to get done, we making a substantial investment in the block so it’s going to be done right so we’re not rushing.

With our project, The National coming online soon, the new restaurant opening up next to that, the Hilton, Federal Courthouse and Richmond CenterStage opening soon Broad Street will be a different world by 2009/2010. Don’t forget Douglas Jemal has his hands in the area and has already started renovations on his properties at 2nd and Broad, plus look for him to do something with the old CNB tower soon. Exciting times, just be patient.

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12 Responses to “Update on East Broad St. redevelopment”

Confessing my ignorance about this particular project, i feel nevertheless compelled to reiterate what some people have been saying about commercial development in downtown Richmond for decades. Namely, that you can put all the businesses down there you like, but without free parking or a critical mass of nearby residents, those businesses will struggle or fail. Why is there no major effort to create a neighborhood downtown? All the efforts seem to be about getting people to drive in from the suburbs, then drive around in circles looking for parking. Let’s just build CenterStage in Chesterfield and save the environmentally unfriendly trip.

Having lived downtown for the past seven years I can attest to massive increase in housing. The River District, Jackson Ward, Monroe Ward, Carver and the Fan have all added housing. The Miller and Rhoads Hotel/Condominium project is coming online and a massive new development on Mayo Island has been announced. Other than that there is not much going on, except for Manchester, but that is south of the river. Oh yeah, Church Hill and Shockoe bottom. I know I’m forgetting something.

I think malfred’s point, Paul H, is not that living near downtown isn’t an option, as Manchester, CH, or Shockoe clearly demonstrate. Seriously, how many folks from Church Hill do you know who’ll walk to 300 E. Broad?

The point I believe he’s making is that businesses opened outside of an area with any sort of housing density need parking since Richmonders don’t walk or bus much as a whole. And yet downtown has little free parking (though an oversupply of paid parking, which is also ignored by most who drive downtown- see the miserable CDA revenues).

Now I will point out to malfred that Broad St. is coming back to life as a residential district with many apt/condo conversions on 2nd floors, there’s a new high rise condo development on Main and 5th (?), Miller & Rhoads will include 150 residential units, there’s the Heritage building on Main & 10th (http://genesisproperties.com/heritagebldg2.htm), things are changing, but slowly.

I think his point is still valid, though, when you consider where the politicians are putting their efforts- towards the big ticket items like CenterStage which saverichmond.com has so accurately critiqued over the years.

I’m confused about Malfred’s complaint. Some of the new businesses will prosper, making downtown a more compelling place for both visitors and a growing number of walking-from-nearby residents. Free parking is not a right, nor is it something that should be encouraged in any urban center. While Richmond is not ready for London-style congestion pricing, the city will eventually need to look at meters, and that is a good thing! That means income for Richmond, it means retraining suburbanites about therir cars, and it means visitors consider (or demand their politicians support) public transit. The problem with many paid lots downtown is they are not available on a 24hours basis with attendants, or are priced inappropriately.

I wholeheartedly agree Downtown has to be more pedestrian and commuter friendly. I am entirely unsatisfied with the current arrangements and the fact that so long has passed with so little progress. It reflects on the man who put himself in charge. LDW has spent precious little time addressing the details of downtown life. One would almost think he spends very little time downtown without the presence of bodyguards and a driver.

The new BRT system has promise, but it has been a long time coming. I’ve met many a wayward tourist looking for a way to get around. I’ve even packed a few in my own car to show them Richmond is not the ghost town it seems.

i’m glad to have sparked discussion with so offhand a comment…really just bringing back up the stated problems of 6th St. Marketplace. I’d like to clarify/critique/whatever a couple of points.

a) available housing downtown…sure, there’s some for a few adventurous yuppie-level folk, but there’s needs to be a NEIGHBORHOOD, which means a variety of housing in several income brackets. I have no evidence for it, but i can’t help but suspect that many of the people living downtown drive west (thanks to their smart tags) to shop. It takes thousands, not hundereds, of convenience consumers to make a shopping district worth mention. I look forward to us boo-hooing that the locally-owned small businesses are being driven out due to high rents. A shopping district whose best storefronts are occupied by pawnshops (when they’re not empty) is not thriving.

b) “free parking isn’t a right”: can you imagine paid parking around a mall? the city needs to get rid of these long-term predators if downtown is to compete. i’ve never seen so much high-price paid parking except in the theatre district of NYC. But the moral/captialist question is moot. Simply: if people can’t park for free, they WILL NOT drive 20 miles to shop. The parking issue is THE issue for any future for downtown. The city failed to solve it for the last go-round of “revitalization” and 6th St et. al. is gone.

There is another exciting project on the way. The venue is going to be called AURORA and it is brought to Richmond by a company called EuroEnterprises. A former bank building on the corner of Grace and 4th Street is currently being converted into a coffee shop/bakery tastefully combined with a European style cocktail lounge and restaurant. It is scheduled for opening in summer. Promotion campaign should start in coming next several weeks.

“b) “free parking isn’t a right”: can you imagine paid parking around a mall? ”

Well yes I can, in fact in the Pentagon City area of Arlington/Alexandria that is precisely what you must do: PAY. Pentagon Row, which has a Harris-Teeter, Sur La Table, many similar shops and restaurants have metered parking which is free for a very short time 15-30 minutes and then requires payment so it isn’t the oddity you might think.

Parking will not be a problem for Canvas, we have the Convention Center’s deck 20 feet outside of our back door. The Convention Center has been very supportive of our project and we will work out a deal giving our patrons access to their deck. There is also a large surface parking lot one block away and a few other decks within walking distance. The myth that there is not any parking downtown is exactly that , a myth.

I go downtown quite often, especially to Shockoe Bottom and Shockoe Slip and never have trouble parking there but I must admit having difficulties parking in the Broad St. corridor. It may be a myth but Richmond needs to find ways to better communicate to the public WHERE this plethora of parking is. I also believe a few free, well marked public lots similar to the ones in Carytown could be a boon to that area and should be considered. Richmond has to do all it can to support bringing in tourists and City-phobic suburbanites and if that means putting up a couple of signs or building a lot or two then by all means, get to it!

Follow the signs with a circled “P”, they will lead you to parking. How’s that for communication. The problem is there a lot of people who come downtown looking for suburban style parking – free and not inside a deck. I grew up in the west end so I can remember feeling uncomfortable driving into a parking deck when I first started working downtown; I also remember being uncomfortable paying for something that had always been free to me before. It is those two mental barriers that cause people to complain about lack of parking downtown, when they are really complaining about lack of free surface parking right in front of the place they want to go. Look I can be cheap bastard myself; I’m always looking to park for free downtown but I also understand that like downtowns everywhere in this country finding free parking is the exception, not the rule.